Town were also without three centre-backs for the visit of the Northern Counties East League side, but Hendey and co-manager Shane Jarram hoped their attacking talents would take the heat off their makeshift defence.

The injury woes continued after kick-off with the loss of yet another defender as well as midfield lynchpin Mike Hendey with a thigh problem.

But while cursing his team’s luck, manager Hendey was keen not to use their growing injury list as an excuse ahead of their trip to United Counties League leaders Buckingham Town on Saturday (ko 3pm).

He said: “That’s two games running where we have lost 4-1 and created goodness knows how many chances to win.

“But we are still going through a process; it’s not a complete team yet and we’re having to play people out of position.

“We just need to be patient, and wait to get that settled back four because upfield we are really strong.

“If we weren’t creating chances and playing well then we would have a problem.

“If we are still in touch by Christmas and get people back from injury, we will see how we go – we won’t have any excuses then.”